News Article: Interesting Q&A with Guy Lafleur

[Hackett]

Lafleur has always been a good quote. You'll get something memorable out of him when he opens his mouth, for better or worse.

As far as his take on coaching, I didn't really ever doubt whether the players would be okay with a English only coach, but that's not the issue. It's the external pressures that come into play here, not internal.

 

[IceHockeyfan]

Translators are a common sight in European soccer.

Where's your source?

Look at the resume of top coaches in soccer leagues. They speak many languages and if they don't know the local language, they learn it. Many soccer coaches speak at least 3 languages.

Even the soccer players try to learn languages when playing in foreign locales. Perhaps the most famous soccer player in the world, David Beckham, learned Spanish in order to play for Real Madrid which is a team in Spain.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

Where's your source?

Look at the resume of top coaches in soccer leagues. They speak many languages and if they don't know the local language, they learn it. Many soccer coaches speak at least 3 languages.

Even the soccer players try to learn languages when playing in foreign locales. Perhaps the most famous soccer player in the world, David Beckham, learned Spanish in order to play for Real Madrid which is a team in Spain.

Yes, they all speak publicly in the language in which their league does business. In the NHL's case, that's English btw. So why aren't we allowed to have English coaches anymore (or Finnish, or Swedish, or Russian, for that matter)? Inflated sense of entitlement, and that's it. The team already employs an entire media division devoted to making sure everything about this team is available in both of our national languages, and the coach has far greater responsibilities than providing easy listening for one segment of their fan base.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

The most surprising thing in this is that Lafleur was one of the most flamboyant/ubiquitous players of his days.

Nowadays he'd get slapped with a stick for making that ridiculous disco album.

 

[Dominator13]

In the Era where Corsi triumphs all, he's out for lunch when they say that they dump more in today's game, except maybe our Habs, but not hockey in general.

 

[WhiskeySeven*]

In the Era where Corsi triumphs all, he's out for lunch when they say that they dump more in today's game, except maybe our Habs, but not hockey in general.

Corsi isn't accurate. Gionta, probably, had a very good corsi dispite his fetish for dump shots from the blue line. Hamrlik had a wickedly... weak wrister from the point, it floated like a helium balloon right into the goaltender. Pleks has a lot of garbage, no-angle shots too.

It's the system we play.

Anyway, Lafleur is talking about real possession, not shots for/shots against. The Habs, by design, play to exploit the other teams' possession mistakes - it is an inherently flawed system for the weak, small, pansy players we have. If we had a Lucic and a Carter and a Kopitar, maybe it makes sense to punish the opposing teams' defenders. With Desharnais, Byron and Pleks in the top6, it makes no sense.